1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a silicone resin composition and to a resin-encapsulated semiconductor device using the silicone resin composition.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional white LED is accompanied with an increasing problem that the epoxy resin sealing material employed therein is caused to turn yellow during the actual use thereof due to the exposure thereof to ultraviolet rays, etc. Additionally, due to the recent trend to further miniaturize the white LED, the quantity of heat released from the white LED is caused to increase, resulting in the generation of cracks in the epoxy resin sealing material. Therefore, it is urgently required to take countermeasures to cope with this new problem. In order to cope with these problems, attempts are being taken to employ silicone resin having a large number of phenyl groups in the molecule thereof.
As for the light source for the LED in future, there is an increasing trend to use one which is further lower in wavelength. Due to the fact that the conventional epoxy sealing material as well as phenyl-containing silicone resin is inferior in light transmission properties as far as a lower wavelength region is concerned, it is expected to be difficult to apply these materials to an LED where a lower wavelength region is employed as a light source. Although resin compositions containing a linear or cyclic silicone resin have been also proposed as a sealing material for the LED, these conventional resin compositions are incapable of securing a sufficient degree of adhesion due to the cure shrinkage thereof.